-Outlook Mumbai: The CBI, probing January 2010 murder of RTI activist Satish Shetty, today conducted searches at the offices of IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited, a company which was recently in news over its links with BJP chief Nitin Gadkari. "Searches are being conducted at four premises of IRB in Pune," a senior CBI official said on condition of anonymity without disclosing details. A year before he was killed, Shetty had lodged a complaint...

-The Indian Express After 14 years, the Central government has held the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat constant at last year’s Rs 1,285 per quintal. There is, of course, still no guarantee that the price will not be changed if major producer states like Punjab and Haryana raise objections. But for now, the UPA government’s newly discovered zeal to push through another reform is heartening. It may also be useful...

-The Indian Express Cutting across party lines, the BJP, NCP, CPI(M), CPI and BSP have told the Central Information Commission (CIC) that they should not be covered under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The Congress, however, has not made its views known as it skipped the hearing before the full bench on Thursday. The representatives of the political parties argued that since they already provide details to the Election Commission and...

-The Business Standard The consequences of unplanned growth in Haryana real estate One of the positive consequences of the recent focus on the dealings between companies owned by Robert Vadra and the real estate giant DLF is that the unregulated nature of the Haryana Land market has become a topic of discussion. Mr Vadra’s companies’ purchases of additional Land and apartments were funded from the windfall gains that accrued after a 3.5...

-The Hindu In forestry jobs equal pay is still a distant dream for women Women are preferred by the forestry staff and contractors for certain forestry operations, like nursery work, transplanting and tendu leaf collection. The work is either contracted on a daily wage-rate or a piece-rate basis. However, women often get lower wages than men for similar work, are not paid regularly and are subjected to harassment if they complain. In a...